The other day, we came across a very interesting article in The Wall Street Journal that met the eye for 2 reasons: (1) It gave kudos to the city of Chicago for planting rooftop gardens to help lower energy usage as rooftop gardens can lower rooftop heat by as much as 70 degrees, therefore, keeping the building cooler, and (2) How Amsterdam is utilizing water to lower energy costs.
We were happy to see Chicago listed in this group of nine innovative cities, because of course, its our home city. But, we were very interested in the article about Amsterdam’s use of water to lower energy costs since our company works with water day in and day out.
What is Amsterdam up to these days? The city was able to decrease the total amount of energy usage in a specific area of the city that was focused primarily to high-tech companies by utilizing a local man-made lake – the Nieuwe Meer. The Dutch system accessed water 100 feet below the surface - at about 43 degrees Fahrenheit - and pumped this water to a location where it is used to cool another supply of water. This second supply of cooled water is then pumped into customers’ buildings where cool air radiates from the cold water and cools the building. The lake water, then, returns back to Nieuwe Meer. With great success, the Dutch are now making plans to extend the system into other areas of Amsterdam.
In today’s world, we take advantage of the world’s resources at accelerating amounts. Unfortunately, though, our world is finite and we do not have an endless supply of resources. Therefore, we must be good stewards of our earth and do our best to take care of our environment. Amsterdam is trying to do just that - achieving significant results while using less energy to help sustain our earth. Let’s be inspired by the work being done in Amsterdam and strive to find other solutions to save energy.
How are you saving energy in your home? In our next issue, we will print some tips on how to live "green". If you have some tips, please email them to info@bishopplumbing.com.
("Nine Cities, Nine Ideas", Wall Street Journal, Monday, February 11, 2008)